BOS tables transfer fee decision

CROMWELL -- To charge a fee, or not to charge a fee ..that was the question at Wednesday night's Board of Selectmen's meeting.

JIM HICKEY

Published
12:00 am EDT, Thursday, October 10, 2002

Selectmen divided on the hot-button issue of whether to start charging residents a fee to use the town's transfer station tabled the fee schedule issue until future meeting.

In the past, residents have been issued a free permit with no time limit, allowing them to use the transfer station indefinitely.

Cromwell is one of the few towns in the immediate area that do not charge a user fee for the transfer station, explained Department of Public Works Director Robert Jahn at Wednesday's meeting. As a result, people from outside continually abuse the town's transfer station.

In addition, special one-day permits are issued allowing contractors doing work in town to use the transfer station.

"Cromwell taxpayers are paying for a lot more waste than is generated within this town's borders," Jahn said.

The hope is that the new fee schedule would relieve the tax burden on those residents who never use the transfer station, as well as reduce the amount of trash the town processes from out of town. Currently, the town issues permits to residents that are good forever. As of this date, approximately 500 permits have been obtained in the current fiscal year. Officials estimate that as many as 4,000 permits have been issued since the transfer station opened.

Jahn had presented a preliminary proposal to the board last month, which required residents to purchase as $25 book of tickets to be used to dispose of specific items. Additional tickets would need to be purchased when the book ran out. Certain items -- like air conditioners and refrigerators -- would require the resident to purchase more tickets.

However, Jahn appeared before the board on Wednesday with what he called a much simpler proposal, which calls for residents to pay a annual flat fee of $35 to use the station. Under the new proposal, senior citizens would pay a reduced annual fee of $20, and one-day permits would go for $10.

Although some selectmen said they were leery of implementing a new transfer station fee for all residents, almost all selectmen said they supported charging for the special one-day permits.

Jahn told the board that a new system requiring residents to display renewable annual permits to use the station was most likely going to be put in place, regardless of what the board decided to do about implementing a fee schedule. The new permits would be color-coded, so that residents with older permits could be easily spotted, and told to get new ones.

Jahn was asked to return with either a revised proposal or a number of different versions for selectmen to choose from.